Saluete! I’ve been wondering about which case to use with the measuring word in a sentence like, “the rampart is five feet tall,” uallum quinque pedes altum est. Now, those “pedes,” are those in the accusative or the nominative? I thought for sure measure words were in the accusative until I read, decem anni longus est tempus, where the “anni” clearly are in the nominative. Is it different with the measurement of time, or is it always in nominative?
Salue, your question concerns the accusative of space or length. It is the accusative in which the length or height of something is measured, as in the sentence uallum quinque pedes altum est, which can clearly be seen when the word of measurement has a different form for nominative and accusative (e.g. uallum unum pedem altum est). However, when describing the length in a measurement of how far apart two things are, the ablative is used; e.g. “the other army is ten miles away” alter exercitus decem milibus (passuum) abest.
The sentence decem anni longus est tempus does not make sense to me, is longus supposed to agree with tempus in the neuter? If that were so, it would make sense but it would be more specific and perhaps better to say something like spatium decem annorum. This would not take the accusative because “10 years” is not a measurement of height or linear length. Besides that, if a measurement of time were put into the accusative it would confuse people, they would think that it were an accusative of duration “for 10 years”.
Ah! intellego. That’s good to know; length/height = accusative; distance = ablative.
The sentence > decem anni longus est tempus > does not make sense to me, is > longus > supposed to agree with > tempus > in the neuter?
D’oh! I meant to write “decem anni longum est tempus”! stultus ego; ueniam.
If that were so, it would make sense but it would be more specific and perhaps better to say something like > spatium decem annorum> . This would not take the accusative because “10 years” is not a measurement of height or linear length. Besides that, if a measurement of time were put into the accusative it would confuse people, they would think that it were an accusative of duration “for 10 years”.
Indeed! bene intellego, gratias benissime; denique: length/height = accusative; distance = ablative; time = nominative. Any other idiosyncrasies I should know about?